Presents a synthesis of what is known about Title I schoolwide programs, focusing on characteristics of schools and districts implementing schoolwide programs, programmatic and organizational characteristics of the programs, and evidence of program effectiveness. Cautions in interpreting the evaluation findings are presented, and educational…

Examines three approaches to compensatory educational reform (clientele participation, bureaucratic influence, and fiscal expectation) and applies them to redistributive school policy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Baltimore, Maryland. Each model stresses a particular policymaking dimension and has varying utility, depending on the community. Local…

In 1995, the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) school district began an initiative aimed at improving student achievement titled the Children Achieving initiative. This reform agenda introduced 10 components that included local decision making, development of standards, and increased professional development for staff. The Children Achieving agenda is…

This study attempts to identify points of intersection between two layers of educational reform by analyzing how the goals of the program "Children Achieving" overlap with those of the federal Title I schoolwide programs in the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) School District. Children Achieving was a district-wide comprehensive restructuring…

The National Study of Effective Title I Schoolwide Programs was initiated to address the lack of information on how schoolwide programs affect teaching and learning and student outcomes and to develop a critical empirical base for strengthening the implementation of Title I programs in service of students in high poverty schools. This paper…

Documents the longitudinal achievement growth of Chapter I students based on nationally representative data from the Prospects Study, which focuses on two- and three-year patterns of Chapter I participation for as many as 40,000 students in three grade cohorts. Overall, significant positive results generally were restricted to the more advantaged…

Used hierarchical linear modeling to study the relations between the degree of Chapter I and regular-program coordination in high-poverty schools and students' longitudinal achievements while controlling for the compositional features of the school. Findings reveal some areas in which high-poverty schools can influence the academic achievement of…

This article presents data on four schools in the Minneapolis (Minnesota) Public School District that are implementing schoolwide projects under Title I. The Title I schoolwide project was adopted in Minneapolis in 1990 to accommodate a growing population of low-income, educationally disadvantaged students in the primary grades. Evaluation of…